Months after delegates at last year’s UAW convention reversed a strike pay increase that had been approved only a day earlier, the union’s International Executive Board has decided to up the pay to $500 per week, the amount that had originally been OK’d at the convention.
The increase, from $400 per week, is something that members pushing for reforms had been seeking for some time. The stunning reversal in the closing hours of the convention held in Detroit in July happened after numerous delegates had left, highlighting the divisions at play in the union.
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In a news release, the UAW noted the increase, approved on a unanimous board vote Tuesday, “reflects the effects of continuing inflation as well as the need for our union to prepare for an important bargaining year affecting multiple sectors and employers.”
One of the key sectors is the auto industry, where the UAW is slated to begin bargaining later this year with Ford, General Motors and Chrysler-parent Stellantis.
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“This increase will immediately help members who are on strike,” UAW President Ray Curry said in the release. “Increasing the strike pay gives notice to employers that we have high expectations as we head into bargaining, and that the UAW is united in fighting for economic justice for all members.”
Curry is currently involved in a heated runoff election campaign to retain the union’s presidency against Shawn Fain, who is leading an opposing slate.
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Fain issued a statement thanking Curry for agreeing with him and other reformers that strike pay needed to be raised but suggested that ulterior motives were at play:
“While this is a reform I wholeheartedly support — and which UAW Members United candidates who were delegates at the 2022 Constitutional Convention voted for — the timing of this vote represents a cynical last-ditch effort by the Curry Team to convince the membership that they’re reformers.”
UAW members might still be in the midst of voting, although members were previously told to mail their ballots back by Feb. 17 in order to meet the Feb. 28 deadline in the election.
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Curry had indicated his support for the increase during the convention, saying in a statement at the time that it would build upon changes already approved by the board “to strengthen the hand of workers at the bargaining table.” However, dissidents had accused the IEB, which has since added several members from Fain’s slate, of undermining the increase.
During the revote at the convention, delegates raised concerns about how a strike pay increase might adversely affect union finances. Fain, in his statement, blamed the result on fearmongering by the union’s administration caucus that he said had misled delegates.
Contact Eric D. Lawrence: elawrence@freepress.com. Become a subscriber.